In some situations, it may be desirable to track and provide spatial location information within a complex dynamic environment such as, for example, battle field operations, emergency management, process plant control, firefighting applications and so forth. Location and tracking systems, such as GPS (Global Positioning System) based automotive systems and other advanced tracking systems can be employed to track personnel and provide location data and tracking information via a user interface (e.g. display screen). Such tracking systems determine specific geographical information with respect to the current location; store the geographical information, mark the current location and display location information via the user interface. A user may further determine his or her path based on actual circumstances in reference to the user interface and mark the path to a destination for guidance to the destination.
Most prior art location and tracking systems are configured with an interactive map displayed via the user interface to present current location context and data indicative of the path to next waypoint. The user interface associated with such prior art tracking systems may be, for example, a relatively expensive graphical display that mounted on a vehicle or integrated with a handheld device carried by the user.
The user interface in association with such graphical displays may not be compatible for use by a mobile worker and therefore head mounted displays have been adapted in a number of tracking systems for critical hands free operations. Such head-mounted displays are typically excessively costly and cumbersome to use. Additionally, the orientation of the display with respect to the user in such head-mounted displays may be critical to the successful operation and use of the device
Based on the foregoing, it is believed that a need exists for an acoustic user interface system and method for providing spatial location data, as described in greater detail herein and for use in location tracking systems.